Confronted by numerous new revelations concerning his administration’s collusion with the Russians, Trump, staying true to form, indicates that he’s ready to give the Russians back their spying facilities in Maryland and New York

But, apparently, even if it’s all true, it’s nothing to really worry about… That’s right, after months of denying backchannel communications and collusion, it seems as though the administration is now taking a slightly different approach. Yesterday, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway referred to Kushner’s undisclosed backchannels with Russia as just something that happens during the “regular course of business.” And, meanwhile, on Fox News, Gregg Jarrett was explaining to the American people, if you can believe it, that “collusion is not a crime.” Here, if you need a good laugh, is the video.

So the bar is moving. While the White House is refusing to talk, the administration’s supporters are attempting to reframe the issue. No longer are they saying there was absolutely no collusion, but now they seem to be saying, “Sure there was collusion with the Russians, but so what?” And, not only was there collusion, and an attempt on the part of the administration to use a secure communications channel inside the Russian embassy in order to talk directly with the Kremlin without the knowledge of the U.S. government, but, guess what? We’re going to give the Russians back their spy compounds. Oh, and we’re also going to pull out of the Paris Accord. Sure, it means the end of the earth as we know it, but, on the plus side, the Russian oil companies will make out like bandits.

And, in spite of it all, Trump still has his supporters… Maybe he was on to something back during the campaign when he said that he could shoot someone and not lose any voters. I suspect, if we stay on this trajectory much longer, we may find out.

Lastly, here, because I can’t stop watching it, is video of Spicer attempting to do the impossible earlier today and explain away the President’s “covfefe” typo as a well thought out message to “a small group of people” who knew “exactly what he meant.” And, yes, this is what Spicer’s job has come to, standing in front of a small group of people who see him as a pathetic joke, and, with completely dead eyes, regurgitating whatever lies he’s been instructed to repeat, no matter how laughably ridiculous they may be.

Starting to smell like quid pro quo to go alone with that obstruction of justice.

Worth noting that the new undisclosed Sessions meeting with known spy-master Kislyak at the Mayflower was also attended by Kushner and Flynn—and all three denied or “forgot” about the private meeting during their vetting and security clearance protocols. Session was under oath when he failed to disclose.

There is no statute against collusion outside of anti-trust law. That would be over broad and impossible to enforce. Fox News was correct.
But as always they omitted the statutes that Trump may be in violation of because of his interactions and quid pro quo with Russia: 1) emoluments clause of the constitution (benefiting financially from the presidency) 2)interfering with elections 3)obstruction of justice.

It’s important to understand what can and cannot bring down the presidency. Trump is pushing the envelope of our system of checks and balances and exposing its weaknesses. A lot of things many presumed to be illegal are not. And many of them should be. It may not be as much fun as deriding our president, but we need to understand the legal issues we are spouting off about if we are ever going to fix them.